Lakhs stretch for International Yoga Day, PM leads event

Chandigarh/New Delhi, June 21 (PTI) Lakhs of people across India and abroad stretched themselves in various postures to mark the second International Yoga Day today as Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the main event in Chandigarh, performing asanas, maintaining that yoga is not a religious activity.

Dressed in a white T-shirt and trousers with a scarf around his neck, Modi joined over 30,000 people including defense forces personnel and school children for the event and asked people to embrace yoga like they have taken to mobile phones, saying "it gives us health assurance at zero budget".

He also pitched for treating diabetes through Yoga and announced two awards including international Yoga awards for excellent work in the field.

President Pranab Mukherjee kicked off the celebrations at Rashtrapati Bhavan with around 1,000 persons participating in a mass yoga event.

The day had its share of controversies with Kerala Health Minister and senior CPI(M) leader K K Shailaja expressing reservations over rendering of a Sanskrit shloka.

Taking part in the state-level Yoga event in Thiruvananthapuram, the Minister asked the officials whether the shloka was necessary to be included in the programme schedule and suggested a commonly accepted prayer could have been included at the event.

No official programme was organised by the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar where Union minister Ravishankar Prasad, led thousands of people in observing the fitness regime.

In Puducherry, Chief Minister V.Narayanasamy and his ministerial colleagues, who were scheduled to participate in the yoga day celebration, were conspicuous by their absence. Lt Governor Kiran Bedi led participants at the mass yoga demonstration.

Union Ministers fanned out to various states to lead the yoga day celebrations.

Braving rains, Home Minister Rajnath Singh participated in the main programme at KD Singh Babu Stadium in Lucknow.

In Jaipur, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and Union Minister Uma Bharti were present at the event venue. However, Bharti was seen sitting on a chair and did not perform asanas due to health reasons. She only did some breathing exercises.

While Governor Vidyasagar Rao and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis led the functions in Mumbai, the event in Madhya Pradesh was led by HRD Minister Smriti Irani.